Crossroads

photo credit: me

Popped onto Blogger just now only to see that I've only posted one entry all year so far. And that was back on January 1st. It appears that I've temporarily given up on blogging. I'm not officially quitting or taking down this site. Shit...this crap will be here for as long as Blogger/Google allows it to remain here for free. I just don't see myself blogging anytime in the near future. And it doesn't mean that I won't find some crazy blog inspiration from time-to-time in the future. I might. But right now...I just don't see it happening.

But there's good news! You can find me and certain brief updates of my life on a couple of other social media platforms! Huzzah!

Twitter - @VerdantDude
I've been on Twitter for several years and over 6,000 tweets. Big whup. Follow me here for updates on what I'm drinking, what I want to drink and what I'll never drink again. Or something like that. In other words, my tweet cloud has the word bourbon and pretty much nothing else. If you like bourbon and the occasional interesting and/or clever thought, then you should be following me on Twitter.

Instagram - @verdantearl
I've been told that my Instagram feed makes me look like a crazy, food-obsessed, alcoholic cat person. Yup...that seems about right. Food, booze and cats. That's pretty much what you are going to get from my Instagram feed. The occasionally odd pic that doesn't fit into that narrow description. Like the pic I took last week above. First 60+ degree day we had this year so far. So we went to our favorite local restaurant and found that they had tables set up outside. We embraced the outside seating and had a few drinks and some small bites to eat. I looked up and saw the nearly-full moon placed perfectly between those road signs. Snap. So even when one of my pictures doesn't seem to be about food or drink...yeah, it probably does.

But that's all I've got going on via social media right now. I've got a sneaky-ass Facebook account, but I'm not really sharing that with anyone. I just don't use it, nor do I want to start using it. So there.

Twitter question

Most of you blogiots are also twidiots, and I mean no disrespect by that. I'm a twidiot too.  But I have a serious Twitter question that may or may not be awkward.

I've noticed some of you use websites/apps like Get Glue, Foursquare, Gowalla, etc... And you have them linked to your Twitter accounts. Checking in with these sites/apps (and I'm kinda guessing here) will generate a tweet to your Twitter stream.  Right?  Is that how they work?  To broadcast to the Twitterverse where you've been, what TV show you've watched, where you've eaten.  Things like that.  Again, I'm not sure exactly how they work, but that's the general drift I get from seeing the generated tweets.

I'm curious as to why you use these sites/apps.  What, exactly, are YOU getting out of it?

I mean, I can see when you've had lunch at McDonalds or breakfast at Denny's or whatever. Or that you've watched the latest episode of Glee with 75 others who've checked in. Or that you've unlocked some sticker of some sort for visiting someplace you haven't been before.

I don't really think about those tweets very much.  They show up in my timeline all the time, but it rarely interests me. As I peruse Twitter, I usually skip right past them. I'm just not sure why you want me to know that you are doing those things. Not sure what I'm supposed to do with that information.

So, again,  I'm curious as to why you are using these sites/apps.  I'm a relative noob to Twitter.  I only follow 56 feeds, and there are only 42 folks who follow me (42 people who must be bored to death with my Twitter lameness).  Maybe there is something here that I am missing with this particular piece of social media. Maybe there are some really fun and interesting reasons to use these sites/apps. I dunno. 

I honestly don't mean to put anyone down for what they are or aren't doing on Twitter.  It's not my place.  I'm just really curious about these things.  Truly.

Holla back if you care to enlighten me.  Thanks!

Starfucker

A friend of mine follows a handful of sports celebrities on Twitter, and spends a lot of time actively trying to interact with them.

I laugh and call him a starfucker.

But I also follow a handful of celebs.  Felicia Day and Pauley Perrette, mostly because I have innocent crushes on them. Albert Brooks because he is one of the goddamn funniest people ever to walk the planet. Rainn Wilson and Megan Amram, because they have famously funny Twitter feeds. Same with Mindy Kaling and Michael Schur (Ken Tremendous).  Simon Helberg and his wife Jocelyn Towne, because they hooked me up big-time last Christmas. And then there is Violet Blue, a sex-columnist whom I consider to be a celebrity*.

The rest of the "celebrities" I follow, however, are sports journalists and/or players.

Most of the time, I barely bother with either replying to a celebrity's tweet or try to contact them.  Most of them have so many followers that I can't even believe they do anything with Twitter other than posting what they want to post. 140 characters at a time.  But sometimes I do it out of habit.  Like commenting on a blog.

The other day, I replied to Joe Posnanski (my favorite writer...sports or otherwise) about a trivia question I thought he might have had wrong.  Turns out he just neglected to be as specific as he thought he was being, and he sent out some clarifying tweets. Mentioning me as being the one who first brought it up.

I'm starting to figure out this whole Twitter thing. Not bad. And call me a starfucker, but it's nice when someone you hold in high regard acknowledges that you exist.  Both sad and wonderful at the same time.

Who is your favorite celebrity to follow on Twitter, and why?  Anybody really cool ever interact with you?  Give it up, peeps.


*Kudos to Avitable, by the way.  He showed up on Violet Blue's Twitter feed AND on her blog the other day with his OK Cupid issues.  Any press is...well, you know the drill.

Twitter Noob

I'm on Twitter, but I'm not really ON Twitter...if you know what I mean.

I follow 27 people.  A handful of celebrities, some baseball writers and then a few of y'all.  I occasionally check out other Twitter fees, but generally I try to stay away from feeds that have too much content.  10-12 tweets an hour from one feed is too much for me.  And some folks post even more often than that.  I don't need to know everything a person is thinking at any given time.

Some bloggers also use Twitter to promote their blog.  I guess that makes sense, but since I use a feed reader for the blogs I read, updates on new posts on Twitter seem a bit redundant.  But I guess some people don't use feed readers, so there probably isn't anything to be done about that.

Weirdly enough, I wind up getting a lot of news from Twitter.  Mostly baseball news during the season, but the odd bit of real world news.  I read about the earthquake in Japan on Twitter first from a post by Pauley Perrette.  I found that to be a bit odd.

Anyway, I've got a couple of questions on how to make my Twitter experience more enjoyable?

• What's the deal with lists?  Why do you use them?  Am I missing out on something here?
• I've seen that you can't send direct messages to someone who doesn't follow you, or at least I've gotten that message when I've tried.  But sometimes they seem to go through?  What's the story?
• What is the best way to contact someone through Twitter?  As I mentioned above, I've tried direct messages. I've also tried replying to one of their tweets, but I'm not sure they see that.  I think they do, but I can't be sure.  
• Have you ever thought about protecting your tweets?  I see that is an option, and I guess it's a way to make sure that only the people you want to read your tweets will be the ones reading it.  I dunno, I guess it's for the same reason that some people make their blogs private.  I don't think that's for me.
• What else?  What else am I missing?  I'm sure it's a lot.

So do it to it, my fellow Twidiots!

Old Hoss

So some of you might know that I don't do Twitter. I have an account, sure. I even "follow" 6 or 7 people, but I don't have it linked to my phone so I rarely remember to check it. I just don't get Twitter. It's something that just doesn't interest me at all.

That being said, my absolute favorite Twitter feed comes from Charley "Old Hoss" Radbourn. The dude who is writing his tweets and twats and whatnot is hysterical.  A bit of 2010 commentary with 1880's sensibility.  He even sponsors his own page on Baseball-Reference. 

Gaze below at the statistical flibberdigab that supposedly represent the greatness that was my career. But these numbers are useless: there are no columns for pints consumed, harlots bedded, or blades brandished.

What a scoundrel!

Old Hoss was a pitcher for the Providence Grays, Boston Beaneaters (how did that name not stick?), Boston Reds and Cincinnati Reds from 1881-1891.  He pitched what is arguably the greatest season by a pitcher ever in 1884 with the Grays, going 59-12 with a league-leading 1.38 ERA.  A lot of baseball folks don't pay much attention to stats prior to 1900, but a win is a win.  And Old Hoss had more of them in one season than anyone else ever!

But Old Hoss' greatest contribution to our culture?  He was the first guy ever photographed flipping the bird. 

It's a little small and grainy, but there it is.  Old Hoss giving the business to the photographer.  Or is that a copy of a daguerreotype?  Hmm.

Oh yeah, pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training this week.  That sound you hear?  My sigh of contentment.  Like a big cat purring.

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Note: Remember to play the Bug-Eyed Trivia Challenge every day. The Charley Horse may have been named after him too.  How cool is that?